Today, EU Ministers adopted a European Commission proposal to control four new psychoactive substances currently raising health concerns in Europe.

With today's decision, the substances MDPV, methoxetamine, AH-7921, and 25I-NBOMe will be subject to control measures and criminal penalties throughout the EU and their manufacturing and marketing will become illegal.

Today's decision is in line with the three-step legal procedure designed to respond to potentially harmful new psychoactive drugs in the EU (Council Decision 2005/387/JHA).

In April 2014, the extended EMCDDA Scientific Committee examined the four drugs and submitted its risk-assessment reports to the European Commission and the Council of the EU. On the basis of these, the Commission recommended to the Council on 16 June that the drugs be submitted to control measures across the EU.

Today’s decision on subjecting these four substances to control measures will enter into force following its publication in the Official Journal. Member States will then have one year to introduce the controls into national legislation.

About the EMCDDA

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) is the reference point on drugs and drug addiction information in Europe. Inaugurated in Lisbon in 1995, it is one of the EU’s decentralised agencies. Read more >>